Jillian’s Furniture opens in former Rose Brothers building in Havelock

By Todd Wetherington, Sun Journal Staff

Wednesday

Feb 7, 2018 at 3:49 PMFeb 7, 2018 at 3:49 PM

A Havelock building left empty after one of the city’s longest running businesses closed last year has gotten a new lease on life.

Last month, Jillian’s Furniture opened its doors in the 20,000 square-foot retail space at 402 West Main St. The building was formerly occupied by Rose Brothers Furniture, which had operated in Havelock at the location since 1970 but had been considered one of the oldest businesses in Havelock.

Jillian’s is an extension of another locally owned and family operated business. The store’s parent company, Furniture Distributors, is owned by Billy Luzadder, whose daughter, Jill Thigpen, is the vice president of sales and advertising for Jillian’s.

Thigpen said her father began in the furniture business in the early 1980s after retiring from the Marine Corps.

“The original store was in Havelock in a little building that was less than 1,000 square feet,” she said. “We grew out of that space and were able to move in the old Belks building. Then we took over the old Mallory’s store.”

In addition to Havelock, Furniture Distributors also has locations in Newport and on Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville.

“Jillian’s is kind of like the next generation for our company,” said Thigpen.

According to Thigpen, the store’s name is derived from combining the names of her father, Bill, her mother, Jan, and their youngest grandchild, Lillian.

“So we have the whole family covered,” she said.

Thigpen described Jillian’s as a full-line furniture store featuring living room, dining room and bedroom sets. She said Jillian’s differs from other furniture stores by focusing on room packages.

“A lot of Marines were saying it was really overwhelming to buy everything all at once. Although we sell individual pieces, we really focus on the whole. They can buy three rooms of furniture and we actually give them a TV with it, so they kind of get everything they need for a modest budget when it comes to furnishing a house,” said Thigpen.

With the closing of Rose Brothers Furniture in September, Thigpen said her family saw an opportunity to carry on the store’s legacy in the same location.

“This was a flagship furniture store and we hated to lose that for our community. So we’re happy to kind of help them out and position ourselves in the community where we didn’t lose a big business here,” she said.

Rose Brothers Furniture was founded by Navy veteran Travis Rose in 1953. The original location was a 1,350 square foot rental building on New Bridge Street in downtown Jacksonville. Following the death last April of Robert Rose, the original owner of the Havelock location, the store was turned over to his son, Burt Rose.

Thigpen said her family has always worked to support local businesses, a tradition she plans to carry on with Jillian’s Furniture.

“One of our manufacturers is House of Silk Flowers, which is a local business out of Beaufort,” she said. “We’re happy to support the community.”

Jillian’s Furniture has scheduled a grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. According to Thigpen, the store will be giving away beds, comforter sets, recliners, chair sets and other furniture items during the grand opening event.